22 The Wilson Bulletin. 



numbers. It is not wholly confined to the river gorges, but 

 is more certain to be found there than in the woods away 

 from them. 



White- winged Crossbill {Loxia leucopterd). I am de- 

 lighted to record this species for the county this winter. 

 There is a previous record, but it is my first experience with 

 this bird of the frozen north. An even half dozen were 

 found feeding upon the cones of the hemlocks which bor- 

 der one of the most picturesque glens of the county. A 

 second visit to the same place resulted in further study of 

 these erratic birds. Their notes and songs once heard could 

 not be forgotten nor confused with any other of our winter 

 birds. The general trend of the song is toward that of our 

 Goldfinch, but it is louder and more forceful. The strong 

 call, "weet! weet!" closely resembles that Goldfinch note, 

 but the gutteral "ch-r-r-r," while flying, is distinctively 

 crossbillian. While feeding there was a soft conversational 

 chatter. 



Canadian Pine Grosbeak {Pint cola enuncleator canadensis). 

 The eleven year search for this interesting bird was rewarded 

 on the first day of the new year. In company with 45 Cedar 

 Waxwings he was dining upon the berries of the red cedar 

 on Vermillion river. The peculiar little whistled alarm, — half 

 song, half alarm — is unlike anything any other bird tries to 

 do. All of these extreme northern birds have a sort of per- 

 sonality not shared by our more southern species. It is, per- 

 haps, best illustrated by the difference between a fish in the 

 warm waters of the summer and the same fish in the icy 

 waters of mid-winter. They are that compacted energy 

 which sets our blood tingling before we know it. 



Pine Siskin (Spinus pinns). The Pine Siskin should not 

 be a rare bird in this county, but the paucity of records for 

 the past half dozen years makes any record of it seem un- 

 usual. On January 7, 1902, when I visited the glen where 

 the White-winged Crossbills were first seen, with the four 

 which were there on the seventh was a company of Pine 

 Siskins, feeding in the same trees, and chattering noisily. I 



